Recipes in four sentences

Monday, June 27, 2016

A Homespun Year...Dreamy Dreamcatcher DIY....

I adore Dreamcatchers, and have admired them for years. Alas they are an expensive item if purchased, even when made by a local artisan. But you can make one yourself, with a few scraps of this and that, and an hour or so of your time.

I made this gorgeous one in neutral tones, for a birthday gift for one of my daughters friends. It was ooh-ed and ahh-ed over and now everyone wants one!

A Dreamcatcher this size with the added details of the shabby rosettes would sell at our Arty Markets for around $75-$95, and cost us about $10 to make. Granted we were using scraps already on hand, but if you had to buy everything you needed, you'd still spend under $20, and you'd have enough for at least 3 Dreamcatchers.

You'll need:

1. Bamboo hoop, any size. Try to keep the scale of your hoop and doiley similar. A tiny doiley in the middle of a huge hoop won't look right. The doiley needs to be centred, but with some space around it to leave room to stretch it tight. The hoops are available at Haberdashery, Craft and Embroidery suppliers and are very inexpensive. They are usually with the floristry supplies and silk flowers, as they're commonly used for wreaths and flowergirl hoops.

2. Lace Doiley...mine was from a thrift store and was just -20c. You can also buy them in the Discount and Dime stores in packs of 5 or 6 in varying sizes, for around $3, so either way, they're not expensive either. Imagine using vintage doileys...how pretty!

3. Wool, ribbon and lace in toning colours for the streamers. You'll also use this to tie the doiley to the hoop.

4. Scraps of fabric in three toning colours or prints to make the Shabby Rosettes.

Start by laying your hoop on your work surface (I sat on the floor), and centering the doiley. Thread twine, yarn, ribbon or lace through as many strategic points on the doiley as possible. The more anchors you have, the more stable and strong, your Dreamcatcher will be. I used toning yarn to anchor mine, and threaded it through each 'point' on my doiley.

Start tying your points off, knotting each one securely. You must alternate sides when doing this to ensure your doiley is centred. So imagine your Dreamcatcher as a clock face. Start at 12 o'clock, tie it off, then drop down to 6 o'clock and anchor that point. Then move to 9 o'clock, then to 3 o'clock. 11 and 5 o'clock, 1 and 7 o'clock, 10 and 4 o'clock, and so on.

By the end, you should have securely anchored doiley, centred and tight as a drum.

Trim all the trailing ends from your knots.

Now start cutting generous lengths of ribbon, yarn, twine and/or lace for your streamers. You'll be folding them in half to attach them, so make them twice as long as you'd like the finished streamer to be. Fold each in half and start attaching them by folding the loop over the bottom edge of your hoop, and threading the tails through the loop.

Pull on the tails gently, but firmly to lock your streamers into place.

Continue adding streamers, using as many textures as possible. You can use scraps of fabric too, but we had all of this yarn and lace leftover from the Victoriana Ghosts costumes I made, so we were thrilled to be able to use it all up! I love the softer tone on tone look, but of course you can make yours as bright and bold as you want.

As you can see, we used feather yarn, bulky yarn, lace, and ribbon. The feather yarn is particularly pretty used on this project as it has a lovely pearly finish.

Look how gorgeous it is with the sunlight shining through!

Now is the time to trim the ends of the tails if you want to. We left ours uneven and shabby looking, but you can trim them straight, or into a triangle point if you prefer.

These rosettes were another item left over from the costumes I made, so joy of joys...a way to use them up as well! If you'd like to make some of your own, I'll be providing a tutorial for them later this week. They are very simple, I promise!

I like to press these flat to give them a worn, and shabby look, so I dampen a teatowel, fold it in half lengthwise, and enclose the fabric rosettes in between the two damp layers. I then press them on the highest temperature for about 60 seconds to flatten them well. You can skip this step if you want a fuller looking rosette.

Next I folded the hessian tape in half, forming a V shape, and wrote my message on the two V tails.

I arranged the rosettes and tag where I liked them best, and pinned them into place.

Then I hand stitched them, ensuring that I was catching some of the doiley behind them. You only need a couple of stitches. This is not an item that will be handled very often.

All done, and I was very happy with the result!

A few of these would make lovely Christmas gifts, and cost next to nothing to create. You can personalise them in all kinds of ways, attach things to the doiley, vary the colour combinations, and make different sizes. You can even leave the doiley out altogether, and weave a shape with yarn in the middle. I've also seen them empty in the middle, but then they're not really a 'dreamcatcher' are they? There's nowhere for the 'dreams' to 'catch'! They still look pretty though, so you're only limited by your imagination.

I'll be making some more masculine ones soon, using darker, neutral colours, and more rustic looking tree branches. I'll share those when they're done.

They're also a popular Wedding decoration at the moment, and I can just envisage a series of these as ceremony and reception decorations at a Boho wedding. Stunning!

I love dreamcatchers too and the first one I got was from my brother in Alaska way back in the 80's. They were very popular then and seem to be making a huge comeback. I love your tutorial because it seems so easy. I have most of the supplies needed, so why not make one?! Perfect gift.

I love the dreamcatcher and you make it looks so easy. Don't know if I can make flowers, but I really think I could make the dreamcatcher. My sister-in-law would love this as a Christmas present. Thank you so much!

If you have time, I would love for you to come and share this post over at the Really Crafty link party that is live right now! (http://keepingitrreal.blogspot.com.es/2016/06/welcome-to-really-crafty-link-party-25.html).

Dear Mimi, Yours are so much better than the ones I saw in the boutique of fine things! And as I told you those were $149. I am totally inspired! Not to collect things but I have heaps of floaty laces and ribbon and some lace doilies... with love Annabel.xxx

Your dreamcatcher looks awesome Mini, so intricate and delicate but yet beautiful. One of my best friends at work got married a couple of years ago and we helped her make hundreds of dreamcatchers during our lunchbreak at work so she could decorate her wedding venue. It looked really pretty.

Love it Mimi! My youngest daughter is a gypsy at heart and has a collection in her room. She had made some and bought some. Can't wait to show her yours! I know that my granddaughters would love it as well. May have to have a fun day with the grands. Thanks for sharing with SYC.hugs,Jann

Just lovely! I weaved one that was a sunset Mimi where did you find the little bottles for your edible glitter. What size are they? I am going to make baking basket for gifts And want to include the edible glitter. Thank you! Patti

These are just gorgeous. I recently saw some of these whilst on holidays and they were very expensive...ranging from $75 to $150 and I think that yours are much nicer than the mass produced ones. Truly one of a kind.

Very pretty and can't wait to try one. I make traditional dream catchers and there is a reason for the hole in teh middle. it is for bad dreams (nightmares) to flow through and drop down the "feathers" at the bottom so as to dissipate in the dawn. I want to try this version but will be looking for doilies with holes in the middle. Just the native in me I guess.

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I never met a sequin I didn't like. I have a tshirt that says 'I was going to save the world, but I got distracted by something sparkly'. I aim to have as much glitter in my life, literally and figuratively, as possible. You too? Join me and we'll sparkle together for less. I promise.